News
Local

Fanshawe College president Peter Devlin, at top, speaks to council’s corporate service committee before council voted to bring discussion of partly funding Fanshawe’s move into the former Kingsmill’s store back to council’s next meeting. (CRAIG GLOVER, The London Free Press)

And next week, city council will tackle both those major items — Fanshawe College’s downtown campus expansion and a new concert hall — just before end-of-term restrictions handcuff politicians from making major investments.

So much for an easy schedule heading into election season.

Tuesday, Fanshawe’s plan to buy the empty Kingsmill’s building and turn it into downtown classrooms was formally resurrected when politicians endorsed a revised version of the plan council killed last month.

That’s the easy part. It was no surprise corporate services committee members Joni Baechler, Judy Bryant and Harold Usher supported it and Bud Polhill and Joe Swan were opposed.

The true challenge for Fanshawe — and the London Downtown Business Association that’s chipping in $1 million to reduce city hall’s stake to $9 million from $10 million — comes next week at full council.

On July 29, council deadlocked 7-7 on helping fund Fanshawe’s $66.2-million plan for the vacant department store (a tie vote is a loss). Dale Henderson was absent that night.

Now, the question is whether eight of the 15 council members will agree to approve the new plan and put $9 million over the next decade into the project.

Of the seven who previously opposed it, Denise Brown is seen as the most likely to switch her vote. She makes no secret that she’s facing plenty of pressure to do so — but showed no signs of changing her mind Tuesday.

“I can tell you I’ve spent over 50 hours on this,” said Brown, who pledged to meet with Fanshawe College brass this week. “Very time-consuming, very tiring but I’m going to continue to make sure I make the right decision.”

Henderson indicated he won’t be voting for Fanshawe, saying he’s irked the Kingsmill’s plan simply moves existing jobs from the main college campus to the core. “I’m not happy at the moment.”

Swan, who’s running for mayor, has led the charge against the Fanshawe-Kingsmill’s plan, calling it too expensive and a misuse of city cash. He argues there are other buildings in the core that could be purchased for far less.

But Fanshawe President Peter Devlin told politicians Tuesday the school looked at 20 different properties downtown before settling on Kingsmill’s that’s across the street from the school’s centre for digital and performance arts.

Combined, the two buildings would house 2,000 students. That’s too good to turn down, Baechler argued.

“This is about the future of the city of London,” she said. “(The opposition) is all delay, delay, delay. It’s not moving this city forward and it’s keeping us in a quagmire.”

Devlin also sought to debunk concerns about the project’s construction costs. Nearly $17 million of the $66.2-million total would go to non-construction expenses, such as computers and classroom furniture, he said.

The concert hall/condo complex plan requires $16 million from city hall. The project will be updated Wednesday when an outside consultant presents its findings to council’s investment and economic prosperity committee.

Committee recommendations on the concert hall project and the Fanshawe-Kingsmill’s plan will go to city council Sept. 2.

But the political implications of both may linger all the way to the Oct. 27 election.